2. Race One
The grid for Race One is set by the fastest laps achieved in the qualifying session and the pole-sitter gets a bonus point for the championship. With six cars or less, the race is a straightforward sprint over a set number of laps using only the '
Jump Start Penalty' and '
Yellow Flag' features of the ARC app. If we had more than six cars, then the top three or four qualifiers automatically start in the feature race - with the others taking part in a 'B final' to fill the final places in the main race. Like the BTCC races, the action should be fast & furious - I've chosen '
Grand Prix' from the Race Mode menu and then tapped on '
Number of Laps' and chosen 20.
I've also tapped on Jump Start Penalty and chosen the 4 second option - that will add 4 seconds to a car's race time if it jumps the start. I toggled-on the Yellow Flag feature so the toggle switch is to the right and the background shows up green - that indicates a feature is active. All the other features are off - their toggle switches are to the left and the backgrounds greyed-out. Tapping 'Driver Setup' shows that we still have the same drivers as in the Endurance race for the qualifying session. The cars are the same and the settings - Fuel Load, Max Power, Throttle Curve, Calibration and Controller Rumble - are unchanged.
Starting the race is the same as before and the
race display is similar - laps completed / total laps, last lap time, race time elapsed and best lap time. There is no need for pit stops in the BTCC race, but if there is a big pile up that blocks the track, there is the option of a yellow flag. The
Yellow Flag feature is activated by tapping the race screen during the race - a waving yellow flag appears in the centre of the screen. The cars are then limited to their calibrated low speed until the screen is tapped again - the race continues, but at a safe speed, during which the crashed cars are re-slotted. I don't always use the yellow flag, but it feels quite authentic in the cut-and-thrust of a BTCC race.
Don't forget to
record the results on paper or in a spreadsheet and also give a bonus championship point to the driver with the fastest lap. The standard BTCC points system is: 20-17-15-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. In the More Stats pages, you can also tell from the graph who has lead a lap - and each of those drivers gets one bonus point for leading a lap during the race. If a 'B final' is run, race points (7th position - that's 9 points - onwards) are awarded to those not 'stepping-up', but the bonus points for fastest lap and leading a lap are only awarded for the feature race.
3. Race Two
The starting grid for the second race is the finishing order of the first - the Race One winner starting on pole (no bonus point this time). Race Two is also where '
Success Ballast' comes in. This slows down the top drivers from Race One. After the first race weekend of the championship, the championship leaders carry 'Championship Success Ballast' into qualifying and Race One of subsequent weekends. It's a crucial feature of the BTCC, so it is important we simulate it in our ARC Pro version. We do this by using the '
Max Power' feature - which can also be used to slow down novice drivers, handicap better drivers or simulate differently performing cars (eg a 1960s saloon car vs a 2019 Formula One car) in other formats.
In the Grand Prix race, we need to go to Driver Set-up, tap on the driver and scroll down past Fuel Load to
Max Power. Tapping on Max Power gives us options of 100, 75, 50, 25 and Custom - all percentages. The Custom setting means any value from 1 to 100% can be keyed-in. Testing on a small-ish home track, I know that reducing the Max Power setting has a different impact depending on whether the cars are running with traction magnets or with them removed. I started with using a
Custom setting of 80% for the Race One winner and 90% for the runner-up. I found at 90% that lap times dropped by 10% for non-mag cars and hardly at all for those with magnets. At 80% lap times dropped by around 15% for non-mag cars and by 20% for magnet cars!
For cars running without magnets, the 80% and 90% reduction works quite well in a four-car field. On larger grids, I might use 80% for the winner, 85% for second, 90% for third and 95% for fourth. With the standard magnets cars, I now run 80% for the winner and 85% for the runner-up in a four-car field. Of course, the result usually comes down to whoever drives the best, but the ballast can make a difference to the result. If you want success ballast to have a bigger impact on the result, simply reduce the Max Power even more. Be careful with standard cars with magnets - there will be a point when they are full-throttle all the way round and you might strain the motor (it will get hot).
Using success ballast via the Max Power setting means carefully recording the settings and remembering to change them for the next race. Having a race sheet on paper or in a spreadsheet makes this much easier.
4. Race Three - Reverse Grid
The grid for Race Three is a complete reversal of the result of Race Two - the winner starts last and the last place car in Race Two starts on pole position (no bonus point awarded). This makes it very interesting if there is a 'B Final' - especially as Success Ballast still applies to the top cars from Race Two! That's not to say the Race Two winner can't fight their way through to win Race Three, but it will be quite a challenge and an exciting way to finish off the BTCC day. There's nothing new to set up in the ARC app, but it is important to keep everything written down on paper or in a spreadsheet - including who gets ballast and how much - as everything is so topsy-turvy in this race.
One feature of the BTCC weekend that can't be simulated by ARC Pro is the
option tyre choice. However, with the Scalextric BTCC cars having wheels that take Slot.it tyres, you could run two different compounds. At the start of the day each driver secretly nominates which one of the three races they will use the 'option' tyres. It's not something I've done, yet...
A final aspect of the BTCC that dovetails nicely with ARC Pro digital competition is '
No Contact Racing' - any deliberate ramming, pushing or brake-testing is not allowed. Of course "rubbing is racing" in the BTCC, but - when a line is crossed - penalties are handed out. That might be a post-race time penalty, a grid penalty, points deduction or even disqualification. For digital racers it is important to always apologise for any on-track incidents, but also to be prepared for penalties for persistent or clearly deliberate offending. No Contact Racing should be an important principle of all digital slot car racing.